A Long Walk. And Other Stories.

-I Am-
Listening To:"Julie & Julia", and audiobook narrated by non-other than Julie Powell herself!
Reading:Wants to get back to her Neil Gaiman short stories...
Craving:Coconut! It sounds beyond amazing right now.

-Listening To Lots Of-

Jason Mraz
Kimya Dawson
Neko Case
Ingrid Michaelson
Regina Spektor
Jack Johnson
Franz Ferdinand
Adam Green
Andrew Bird




-Lots Of Catching Up To Do-

My goodness! I have been rather lazy in making posts/comments now haven't I? Life has been beyond busy. There have been more ups and downs in the past few weeks than I've had in maybe an entire years worth of living, but I'm not going to bore you all with any details.

I'm definitely reassessing a lot of my life right now. Taking on new challenges, trying to become more self-motivating, and stuff like that.



-Challenges!-

• 
  
  Learn better ways to stay self motivated. This will come in handy when trying to complete the other challenges I'm setting for myself!


• 
  
  Work out at home on a regular schedule. It's harder than it sounds. I've found that if I do a little something when I wake up it becomes easier to stick to other things throughout the day. So, stretching in the morning, and doing some pilates/other exercise throughout the day, and do some sit-ups at night whilst mindlessly watching Will & Grace, which I do anyway, now I'll just feel like less of a vegetable while doing so. Works for me :)


• 
  
  Learn to cook. The basics are needed in my case. I've been reading some of my mom's cookbooks lately, but non of them go as in depth in the very basic elements of cooking as Julia Child's "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking". I learned how to poach an egg, my favorite variety of egg preparation...but only in theory lol eventually I shall actually try it.


• 
  
  Find more time to read the books I want to read and watch the films I want to watch. I have stacks and stacks of books and movies in my room. Ones I've bought, or borrowed from the library that I just never seem to get around to finishing...or starting.


• 
  
  Become somewhat vegetarian or Flexitarian. I am not a huge meat fan, though I think it would be hard to give it up entirely especially since I don't cook all of the meals in my house and I live with non-vegetarians and with someone who's doctor has put him on a high-protein diet for his health. Also, I couldn't give up fish for the world...so this seems to be the most realistic option.


• 
  
  Get more do it yourself-y. I love making things and reading books on making things. So I figure I oughtta actually I don't know....Make Things?

I realized something as a wrote the above: considering my great love for fine cooking and good food it's a rather good thing I'm a ballerina, enjoy exercise, and have a rather healthy metabolism... I'd be sure to end up a balloon otherwise.

-Television-

Summer here is coming to a close, not weather wise (summer weather here lasts well into October), but schedule wise. Almost everyone's getting back to school and work and their other various activities. I however don't start school until the Monday after Labor Day, and have found myself sleeping a lot more, and watching more television. I feel like a teenager...not that I'm not a teenager because I am, it's just that stereotypical summertime lazy teenager thing. I know this will all change once school and all the other busy things of my life kick-in, it's just an odd feeling to have...the time wasting.

Anyway, I have learned the following whilst watching television.

When you've come home after a dance class with a blister the size of a nickle on your toe, entirely exhausted it is actually entertaining to watch a Scottish documentary on the behaviour of cats on PBS in the middle of the night. Nothing like watching an array of different cats sleeping, grooming, mating and what-not with random frames of Scottish country-side staring you in the face for ten seconds after every paragraph the narrator has finished.

I have a small crush on Will of Will & Grace. It's not enough that it's a fictional television character that I'm fond of, but a gay one...just my luck.

Watching Malcolm In The Middle will make anyone feel 100% better about their life, guaranteed. Just try it.

-Eighteen.-

Dear Lord! I'm going to be eighteen fairly soon...

I have never felt a birthday be so daunting. I guess it's the whole "You're a legal adult in the US" thing...not much other than that comes with the age though. Here unlike other places you aren't of drinking age yet, and I still haven't learned to drive...so really it's just like any other birthday just one that seems to have a significant meaning to society. I will be able to buy a pack of cigarettes, which although I don't smoke I might buy just because I can. They can sit on a shelf in my room with the receipt inside one of the ash trays I've seemed to accumulated for no apparent reason as testament to the fact that I've reached the age of eighteen. I have no plans for a party...we'll see with everyone back in school planning things like this seems silly. Normally my birthday falls right after or on Labor Day weekend, but this year it's five days before...maybe I can arrange a small birthday get together that weekend? Since everyone seems to have that off. I don't know...I suppose I'll figure it out. Haha.

-Never Take A Long Walk In Arizona In August. Period.-

My cousins came to visit during the week. We went to the mall for a bit since it's the only cool (temperature-wise) place to be in the summer here. Spent some time at Urban, and got yummy food at the food court. We went to See's Candies to get a chocolate lollipop, and hope that the lady at the counter would offer us some free samples which she did, they were walnut squares I believe, walnut and gooey carmel with a dark chocolate bottom. Yum! On our way out of the mall we notice a bunch of paramedics and a little boy of about three being transported from Wetzels Pretzels on a stretcher. The pretzel shop roped off with yellow tape, and a mall cop taking pictures of the blood on the floor! What on earth could that boy have done to himself at a soft pretzel shop? My brother joked that he was probably beaten with a pretzel but my cousin Dillon more realistically said that he probably hit his head on the counter or something...either way it was something to see, and I hope that the little boy is alright, and knowing little boys if he is alright he's telling all his friends at school the story of how he survived some strange injury at Wetzels Pretzels.

After we left the mall we decided to take a trolley ride around. Downtown Scottsdale has a free trolley service that stops at every stop every fifteen minutes and runs until nine pm. It will take you anywhere on it's route (which Is quite expansive) and is supposed to also take you round trip back to where you started if you want. Our wish was to go round trip, and that didn't happen...

We got on the trolley at the stop nearest the bookstore and about fifteen minutes late (and quite a ways a way from the bookstore) the driver stops the trolley and takes out a newspaper and says "Get Off", so reluctantly we do with very little idea of where we are. My brother found a map and we finally realized where we were...it was going to be a long walk. We made it something like four or five (maybe more...) city blocks in the hundred degree heat, and realized there was no way we could make it to the bookstore 'cause we weren't even halfway there yet. So, we were lucky enough to have given up on a corner that had a Starbucks (or could that have just been incentive along with the heat to give up on the walk?) we went in got some water and called for a ride. The right thing to do absolutely!

Haha so it was an adventure, an exhausting one the resulted in extreme thirst, a rather large bloody blister on my heel from the shoes I was wearing (didn't think I'd be walking that much), and very sweaty clothes, but it was still fun when you look back on it. It's not everyday you get kicked off a trolley with your cousins, get lost and attempt walking back to where you were in the Arizona heat. When I got home I put some loose clothes on and sat in the living room to maybe watch some television 'cause I was so tired, and I fell asleep for a good three hours and slept that night! It was a long day but good :)

-Bye Bye-

Hope you all have had good weeks, and are ready to have awesome weekends! I plan to post more regularly now and comment on all of your wonderful blogs!

'Til Next I Post.